Archives

Posts by Date

Chicago Recovery Alliance

Mission:

The Chicago Recovery Alliance is committed to respect for every woman, child or man using alcohol or other drugs and to assisting any positive change in the reduction of drug-related harm with all people.

Program Highlights/Accomplishments:

Since 1997 CRA has operated its harm reduction outreach with people injecting using hepatitis preventative injecting as the ‘gold standard’ of safer injection. In other words, we have developed, with our participants, a standard of safer injection that prevents spread of HBV and HCV as well as HIV and many other potential pathogens. We developed a pictorial guide to hepatitis preventative injection and it remains on our website available for free download. We have found it to be a great communication device between people injecting and those trying to help them. Explanatory text for the guide is also available in many languages that has been contributed by people the world over. In late 2010, CRA administered its 50,000 vaccination! The vase majority of these vaccinations were viral hepatitis preventative (A and B) as well as flu and more recently pneumococcal. CRA has collaborated with multiple forms of government and industry to offer this service and was guided by the HEP-TEV Program of Berkeley Free Clinic. While many vaccination advisory councils has strongly urged new outlets for offering vaccine to at risk parties, this effort is of a new breed so recommended and has strongly succeeded in reaching those public health targets. Completion of the viral hepatitis vaccine series by our records using anonymous, reproducible personal codes hovers around 84%. Finally, in 1996, CRA began to educate and prescribe naloxone to reverse opiate-involved overdoses. Through August 2011 we have reached over 22,000 people using opiates (mainly heroin) and heard 2,720 reports of peer reversal of overdose.